Hyderabad: Crime down by 10 percent in 2020; POCSO cases down by 35 percent

From the angle of road safety too, the city saw a dip with 237 persons being killed in road accidents as against 271 in 2019.

Hyderabad: Overall crime rate in the city has come down by 10 per cent in 2020, with most crime categories registering a dip in number of cases with the exception of cybercrime.

This is after the police registered 22,641 cases in 2020 as against 25,187 cases registered in 2019. The biggest drop was seen in cases registered under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, with a 35 per cent dip compared to last year. This was followed by a 27 per cent reduction in property crimes, 26 per cent in bodily offences and 19 per cent in crime against women.

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City Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar attributed the decrease in crime rate to continuous criminal tracking, dynamic police patrolling and installation of closed circuit television cameras. He said there were 4,660 offenders in the city, who were checked 15,202 times by patrol officers.

“Dial 100 facility received 2,02,605 calls, which were attended to by police patrol teams and Blue Colts officers,” he said.

From the angle of road safety too, the city saw a dip with 237 motorists being killed in road accidents as against 271 in 2019. At the same time, 68 pedestrians were killed in road accidents as against 108 last year.

However, cybercrime in the city registered an increase with 2,456 cases registered at Hyderabad Cybercrime station as against 1400-odd last year.

Shikha Goel, Additional Commissioner (Crimes and SIT), said cybercrime increased as more people were using internet. “There has been an increase in cybercrime because many people were working from home or staying indoors in the current situation and criminals too were switching over to cybercrime instead of conventional crime,” she said.

DS Chauhan, Additional Commissioner (Law & Order), said over 3,000 policemen were affected with Covid-19 while performing duties, of whom 34 succumbed to the virus and related complications. He said the police played a selfless role during the pandemic and also during flash floods in October.

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